Filler-Corn to run for Democratic nomination for Fairfax delegate seat

A lobbyist who served under Virginia's past two governors announced Tuesday she would seek the Democratic nomination to fill an empty seat in the Virginia House of Delegates.

Eileen Filler-Corn, 45, of Springfield said she will run for a vacant seat in the 41st House District, which is in Fairfax County and includes the areas of Burke, Fairfax Station and Springfield. Filler-Corn ran for the 41st House seat in 1999, losing to former Repulican delegate James H. Dillard II, one of the state's longest-serving legislators at the time.

Filler-Corn, who is the director of government relations for Albers and Co., an Arlington-based lobbying firm, served as a senior adviser for state and federal relations to former governor Timothy M. Kaine (D) from 2006 to 2007. She also previously served as deputy director for the Virginia Liaison Office during former Democratic governor Mark Warner's four-year term, ending in 2005.

Del. David W. Marsden (D-Fairfax), who held the 41st House seat for four years, defeated Republican Stephen M. "Steve" Hunt by 324 votes in a special election last weekJan. 12. He resigned his House seat a day later.

Kerry D. Bolognese, a higher education lobbyist who unsuccessfully ran against Marsden in November, has announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination in the 41st. The special election is set for March 2; the filing deadline is Jan. 29.